TY - JOUR
T1 - The biogeographic pattern of microbial functional genes along an altitudinal gradient of the Tibetan pasture
AU - Qi, Qi
AU - Zhao, Mengxin
AU - Wang, Shiping
AU - Ma, Xingyu
AU - Wang, Yuxuan
AU - Gao, Ying
AU - Lin, Qiaoyan
AU - Li, Xiangzhen
AU - Gu, Baohua
AU - Li, Guoxue
AU - Zhou, Jizhong
AU - Yang, Yunfeng
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Qi, Zhao, Wang, Ma, Wang, Gao, Lin, Li, Gu, Li, Zhou and Yang.
PY - 2017/6/13
Y1 - 2017/6/13
N2 - As the highest place of the world, the Tibetan plateau is a fragile ecosystem. Given the importance of microbial communities in driving soil nutrient cycling, it is of interest to document the microbial biogeographic pattern here. We adopted a microarray-based tool named GeoChip 4.0 to investigate grassland microbial functional genes along an elevation gradient from 3200 to 3800 m above sea level open to free grazing by local herdsmen and wild animals. Interestingly, microbial functional diversities increase with elevation, so does the relative abundances of genes associated with carbon degradation, nitrogen cycling, methane production, cold shock and oxygen limitation. The range of Shannon diversities (10.27-10.58) showed considerably smaller variation than what was previously observed at ungrazed sites nearby (9.95-10.65), suggesting the important role of livestock grazing on microbial diversities. Closer examination showed that the dissimilarity of microbial community at our study sites increased with elevations, revealing an elevation-decay relationship of microbial functional genes. Both microbial functional diversity and the number of unique genes increased with elevations. Furthermore, we detected a tight linkage of greenhouse gas (CO2) and relative abundances of carbon cycling genes. Our biogeographic study provides insights on microbial functional diversity and soil biogeochemical cycling in Tibetan pastures.
AB - As the highest place of the world, the Tibetan plateau is a fragile ecosystem. Given the importance of microbial communities in driving soil nutrient cycling, it is of interest to document the microbial biogeographic pattern here. We adopted a microarray-based tool named GeoChip 4.0 to investigate grassland microbial functional genes along an elevation gradient from 3200 to 3800 m above sea level open to free grazing by local herdsmen and wild animals. Interestingly, microbial functional diversities increase with elevation, so does the relative abundances of genes associated with carbon degradation, nitrogen cycling, methane production, cold shock and oxygen limitation. The range of Shannon diversities (10.27-10.58) showed considerably smaller variation than what was previously observed at ungrazed sites nearby (9.95-10.65), suggesting the important role of livestock grazing on microbial diversities. Closer examination showed that the dissimilarity of microbial community at our study sites increased with elevations, revealing an elevation-decay relationship of microbial functional genes. Both microbial functional diversity and the number of unique genes increased with elevations. Furthermore, we detected a tight linkage of greenhouse gas (CO2) and relative abundances of carbon cycling genes. Our biogeographic study provides insights on microbial functional diversity and soil biogeochemical cycling in Tibetan pastures.
KW - Alpine grassland
KW - Altitudinal gradient
KW - Microbial biogeography
KW - Microbial functional potential
KW - Soil microbial community
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85020543528&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fmicb.2017.00976
DO - 10.3389/fmicb.2017.00976
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85020543528
SN - 1664-302X
VL - 8
JO - Frontiers in Microbiology
JF - Frontiers in Microbiology
IS - JUN
M1 - 976
ER -